My own personal barnyard

I learned something today.  I painted the background for a new painting yesterday and left it to dry overnight.  Well, it is so damn cold in here the paint cracked as it dried.  Huh.

Anyway, it was a very productive weekend.  Helped that I had Sunday off, so it was a two-day weekend.  Roxie and I shoveled the deck upstairs, did four loads of laundry, changed the sheets on the bed, put away all the clothes, washed some dishes, read a book, went for two walks, built a wreath for Eletra, finished five wee copper trees and painted four more roosters, plus the background for a fifth.  Maybe one or two other things that I'm not remembering right now.  I'm not going to post pictures of the wreath yet - I want Eletra to see it in person first.  It is quite lovely.  So, on to the barnyard.

I am once again going out on a limb here and I am going to show you all of the roosters.  Starting with my least favorite.

Is that a weird head, or what?  I like this part:

This is the painting where the paint cracked.  You can sort of see it in the second picture.

The next one I painted on a panel I started ages ago, for a word painting, then I couldn't decide what words to put on it.  I was thinking of MEDIUM RARE, but the panel turned out more well done than rare.

The first picture is a more accurate color representation.  Very dark red and some browns and copper.  His tail explosion is some bright yellow green, which I am discovering is a color impossible to photograph.

Here is number three, which I love.

What a face, eh?  The last picture is at a bit of a different angle in an attempt to reduce the glare on the left side of the panel.  And yes, the painting is resting on the sprayer of my kitchen sink.

Last but not least, this is another canvas I had painted a while ago.  It is a gallery-wrapped canvas, so won't need a frame.  Actually, I've painted the background twice - didn't like how it came out the first time.  It was also going to be a word painting.  I'm glad it turned into THIS instead:

Ditto to everything I said about the third rooster, starting with "I love it" and ending with the kitchen sink sprayer.  Moral of the weekend rooster experiment:  sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you kinda don't.  But I feel pretty darn good about the results as a whole.

So there's my barnyard so far.  When I figure out how to successfully paint a cow, I will be beside myself.

The Unveiling



Before I unveil the new painting, here are a few pictures of the almost-bacon-scented wreath I finished last night.  It's purty.

 

And now, here it is.  Keep in mind that I took these photos at home, with no flash, and I couldn't be bothered to spend the extra two minutes it would have taken to put the camera on my tripod (which, by the way, is right over THERE).  So out of focus they may be, because the lack of a flash meant it was a wee bit too dark (two of the overhead lights in my kitchen do not work).

 

Surprise!  A rooster!  Please also note, in addition to the out-of-focus pictures, the color balance is way off.  I need to re-read the owner's manual and figure out how to tell the camera what type of light source I am working with.  The lightest bits in the painting are a bright yellow green, and the darkest bits are a deep purple.  Totally different for me, tho, eh?  I am quite pleased with myself.  I fear the reason why the painting came out as well as it did was because of the scratch-and-sniff aspect of painting in my kitchen.  I was painting while this guy's girlfriend was cooking in the oven.

 

Roxie was posing on her couch at work today with her piggy, and it would have been such a fabulous picture, but I dropped the lens cap in my haste to get out the camera, and it startled her into alertness.  She likes to rest her elbows on those tootsie roll pillows.

I am racing through this post because I've actually got wifi right this minute, but I'm afraid it is going to disappear - poof! - at any second.  All feedback is welcome regarding the rooster, who is 16" wide x 12" high, by the way.  His name may be "Aristocrat" because he has such a long and aristocratic face.  Haven't decided.  Derek wants to put him in the front window once he is framed.  There is a part of me that wants to keep him because I don't know if I will be able to paint another one.  Guess there's only one way to find out.

And again. And again. And again.

Why does poodle always look so sad?

You may not know this, but I have been threatening to make peanut bacon truffles for a few weeks now.  They were going to happen - truly they were - for Last Fridays but I just realized the reason why I didn't do it.  Whenever I cook bacon my wee home smells like a greasy diner for at least a week.  The circulation isn't so great in there.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but I had the beginning of another ornament wreath all over my table, and had I cooked the bacon I would have inadvertently created a bacon-scented wreath.  Again, not that I'm complaining, but I think someone is going to buy the wreath and I didn't check to see if she likes bacon.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Here are some pictures to prove that we haven't spent the last few days sitting around eating bon bons, glued to the couch and reading.  Although we did sit around reading.  My introvert book arrived - woo hoo!  Anyway, can you say f-o-r-m-u-l-a-i-c?

The first one might be called "Christmas in the Flathead."  It's a gray, gray day.  The second one needs to be redone with a brighter green for the tree, I think.

Then we have another taller tree - 6" wide x about 10" high, vs. the rest of these which are 5" wide x 7" high.  The peppermint tree is my favorite.  The purple one on the bottom was still wet when I took the picture, which is why it is lying down.  The angle makes it look taller than it is in real life.

Happy happy tree tree.

I was going to post all of these pictures last night, but discovered I no longer have wifi.  Grr.  The teaser at the end of the post was going to be this:

You might want to sit down before I mention I painted something else last night, and it isn't a tree.  That's right, Sybil came over to paint at my house again, and this is her color palette (with one substitution - I switched out the bright purple for a darker one).  Here is a piece of the painting:

Can you tell what it is???  Heh heh.

The end.

Except I had no wifi so couldn't post this.  And then I couldn't sleep AT ALL last night, so got up at 3:20 and put the first coat of varnish on the painting.  I'm thrilled with how it came out, but I'm not going to show it to you until tomorrow.  See if you can guess what it is first.

Stupid Human Tricks

I think I am developing some kind of neurological disorder.  I trip over my own feet a lot.  On Thanksgiving Day, I was carrying a fresh-from-the-oven pre-baked pie shell to cool in the other room, when I tripped over my own feet.  Ouch.  Got some good carpet burn on my knee, but I didn't let go of the pie plate.  Today, in what has turned into a terrifically unfortunate event, I tripped up the stairs between the gallery and the work room (that would be a grand total of two steps).  You know how you tend to flail your arms out when you trip, in an effort to catch yourself?  I flailed.  And I smashed my arm on the corner of our computerized mat cutter.  Ouch.  Two hours later and I've got a huge goose egg on my arm and it hurts like crazy.  I think I cracked a bone.  This is particularly bad news considering the amount of crafty crafty and cookery cookery stuff I need to do tonight.  I.  Am.  A.  Dope.

In other news, however, Derek may have sold my "A Thousand Christmas Trees" painting.  We will know tomorrow.

And in different other news, I shipped a box with four paintings in it to The S.P.A.C.E. Gallery in Burlington, Vermont for a non-juried show called Small Works.  Each piece needs to be less than 12" in any dimension. It is a two month exhibit, from December 7th through January 26th.  I didn't know what to send, since I wanted all the pieces to relate to each other in some fashion.  I ended up with four abstract pieces, one of which I just noticed I don't have a picture of at all.  Poo.  So that's that.  Go to the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery on Pine Street in Burlington and buy my paintings.  You would make a girl with a goose egg on her arm very happy.

Of course, when I win Powerball tonight, I will be giving my paintings away for free.

On a Snowy Evening

I painted another tree landscape.  It's bigger than the last one.

It goes on forevah.....

In the interest of staying in a multi-faceted rut, I am naming this one "On a Snowy Evening."  Also with a nod to Robert Frost.  He's my go-to guy right now.  I think this canvas is 8" high x 24 " wide. 

And in the interest of messing around with my new camera, here are a few random bits and pieces of the new painting.

I was hoping to leave this canvas unframed, but I didn't purchase it from my best friends at Dick Blick, so it isn't as deep as I would like.  Ergo, it has what we affectionately refer to in the framing industry as the potato-chip effect.  It is warped.  You can see in one of the pictures above that the sides of the canvas are a mottled green and white - I had painted the canvas a dark green ages ago to use for a completely different purpose (a landscape I painted on paper, that now needs another home).  When I stole the canvas for this painting, I only covered parts of the sides with white.  I am quite fond of the way they came out, but unfortunately I think they will be covered by a frame to give the thing some additional support.  We shall see.  Maybe my framers will come up with a clever alternative.

Here is your poem for the day, by my guy Robert Frost.

Dust of Snow

 

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

 

Cyber Monday.  Send all your friends to shop on my Etsy store.  Please and thank you.





Artist Statement

First of all, it made the cut.  I named it "A Thousand Christmas Trees (with a nod to Robert Frost)."

The framing concept is one we came up with for an artist client, and I have stolen it for my own.  Instead of the canvas panel sitting underneath the rabbet of the frame, it sits on top.  It creates the look of a very modern canvas floater, and only works with moulding that has a fairly steep slanted face.  Clever.

Secondly, last night I drafted an Artist Statement.  I think it is quite good.  Derek has suggested I add a bit about having 15 years of framing experience, and how that enables me to conceptualize my half-baked ideas.  I will work on it, and see how it feels.  In the meantime, here is my draft:

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

 

"Decide who you are, and then do it on purpose."  - Dolly Parton

 

At the tender young age of 43, I decided what I want to be when I grow up, and I began dedicating myself to it with some degree of purpose.  I think we all want to be surrounded by things that make us happy, but not all of us take the time to figure out what those things are.  The act of existing can be so complicated, there is often no time left over for living.  And before we know it - poof!  It's too late.  My own personal roadmap delivered me to a place where I finally gave conscious thought to what makes me happy, and in doing so I decided who I am.  I gave myself permission to actively pursue a creative outlet and it is incredibly rewarding to see the way ideas and half-formed images in my head manifest themselves in real life.  To create something beautiful with my own hands makes me happy.  Whoever said money can't buy happiness wasn't spending it on the right things.  Semi-prescious stones.  Glass beads.  Copper wire.  Paint.  Mostly paint.

 

I have no formal art training but rather than allow this to be a stumbling block I believe it frees me to embrace the unconventional.  My drawing skills are dismal, but my painting skills are quite unique.  I love color and texture and words, particularly all mixed up together, and it is sometimes surprising yet always fascinating to see what ends up on the canvas.

 

I appreciate how art appeals to many senses at once.  I love the texture I can achieve with molding paste, or chunky paint and a palette knife.  I adore the smell of oil pastels.  I am fascinated by the way colors create different patterns when they swirl together on the canvas.  And I am most at peace when I am splattered with paint, a glass of bubbly in one hand and good music playing in the background.

 

My work makes me happy.  Everything makes sense; there are no hidden meanings.  I am not attempting to capture a multi-spatial perspective, my work contains no ambiguous fragments, and I have no idea how to combine metaphysical time/space elements.  I paint, and when I think I am finished, I stop.

 

(The end.)

 

You will, of course, recognize bits and pieces of this masterpiece from here, my blog.  I have no immediate need for an artist statement, I just felt the urge to write one.  Perhaps, out in the universe, I DO need one but I don't know it yet.  Stranger things have happened.

 

Thirdly, I have a book in my shopping cart on Amazon.  It is called "Quiet:  The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain.  This book was written about me.  For example, from the description, introverts are "the ones who prefer listening to speaking, reading to partying; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion."  Yep, yep and yep.  I will buy this book to read more about myself, but I couldn't bring myself to make a purchase from Amazon.com on Small Business Saturday.  It would have been rude.

 

Is that a good thing?

I have just spent some (quality?) time online looking at art galleries.  I can't find any artists who paint like I do.  Not even close.  I do not know how I feel about this revelation.  Part of me feels kinda unique and special.  Part of me feels like a freak and somewhat stupid.  (And part of me still wishes I were on vacation, sitting on a beach.)

Here is the painting under consideration from last night.  I like it.

Some would say I am stuck in a rut.  I prefer to think of myself as thematic.  In fact, I got some lovely, unsolicited feedback on the painting I donated to the Festival of Trees.  It was the tall tree from a couple of posts ago.  Made me feel like less of a freak....

Poodle is having a birthday tomorrow.

As you can see, she is very excited.  Can hardly contain herself.  We left work early today and got home with enough light outside to play b-a-l-l (I have to spell it so she doesn't wig out).  Someone was a happy camper.  Now Momma has to drag her sorry ass off the couch and clean up the kitchen.  I really really really want to make my two pies (cranberry orange and chocolate pecan) plus a kale tart tonight so I can sleep late tomorrow morning.  I believe last Thanksgiving, in what I am embarrassed to admit was my usual state of procrastination, I didn't bake the night before and had to get up wicked early.  What a waste of a day off.  I adore the feeling of waking up, looking at the clock, and realizing I don't have to get out of bed for hours and hours.  Call me slothful, I don't care.  I don't even know if that's a word, and I don't care about that either.  I get my best sleep after I wake up.  Go figure.